ONE SHOT PRODUCTIONS
A Day in the Life of a Comic Book

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Being an Indie Publisher ain't easy.
It's not a way to get rich, and it's really not even a way to break even. Maybe everyone has a different reason why they would start publishing comics independently, but my reason is pretty simple. I just have to. I drew my first comic book on notebook paper with colored pencils in 1987 when I was 10 years old. And it sucked. Thankfully, my comics improved (slowly) over the following 10 or so years. I started publishing my comics in 2001. I love writing comics, and I'm getting more and more into developing my style of art as well.

Indie publishers have to balance all the same facets of life as anyone else (day job, chores, personal life, etc) but we also have to find the time to squeeze in all the duties of publishing that are usually done by a TEAM of paid comic professionals (writing, drawing, lettering, web design, promoting, etc). Sometimes you just want to relax. Sometimes you do that a little more often than you should. Sometimes a LOT more.

So on May 16, 2007, I decided to make a stand. I decided to try to do SOMETHING comic related EVERY DAY. I do have some rules, which are pretty loose and apt to change. I started this web log on July 1st 2007, and so far I HAVE done something for my comics every day. I don't know how long it can last, but I'm going to try.

I've decided to chronicle my daily comic tasks right here for our readers, to give them a peek into the creative steps and behind-the-scenes processes that bring these stories to the page. Enjoy :)
-Jay W. Davis, One Shot Productions

Previous Blogs: [Jul-Dec 2007] - [Jan-Jun 2008] - [Jul-Dec 2008] - [Jan-Jun 2009] - [Jul-Dec 2009]

[Jan-Jun 2010] - [Jul-Dec 2010] - [Jan-Jun 2011] - [Jul-Dec 2011] -[Jan-Jun 2012]

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012
Tonight, I drew a couple of sketches of the new waterfall / shower area for the elf village. Again, I tried to look up some real life visual reference on the internet, but couldn't find anything comparable to what was in my head. The sketches I did were quite crude, but one of them got the idea across (I think). I cropped and prepped this image and the one from yesterday, and sent them both to Curtis via email.

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012
While talking with Curtis yesterday, I suggested that male elves wear pants that can be converted into shorts. I'm pretty sure I've seen this in real life. With a small strap sewn inside the pant leg, the pants could be pulled up to the knee and then fastened with a button. I tried to look up this sort of attire on the internet, but all I could find were these really ugly pants that had zippers to remove the bottom parts. Without any real life visual reference for this article of clothing, I drew a sketch of two elves wearing the garment as I envisioned it.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012
Curtis and I had a long conversation tonight about the new script. In particular, we were both concerned about the "waterfall shower" area of the village. At first I suggested a rather contrived "water slide" made of wood, which would deliver the water to the showering platform. After some discussion, I realized that it would be better to have a natural rock formation that would take the force of the waterfall and redirect it safely to the platform. The elves would have built their platform to take advantage of this natural formation, rather than building a complicated delivery system. Later, I prepped a few sketches of the elf village platforms and homes.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012
I'm still stuck on getting this visual reference material ready. Tonight, I prepped more sketches from Curtis. These included a couple of pages with multiple female elf outfits, and one featuring multiple male designs.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
More of the same. I cropped and added notes to a few more pieces of visual reference. In particular, I prepared a sketch of mine showing Kira in her formal / festival attire. After that, I prepped three pages filled with various sketches of the monster, all drawn by Curtis Rhodes.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2012
Guess what? Yup, more digital visual reference. Tonight I did quite a few, preparing three sketches of the strange little "silker" animals that live in the elf village. I also created a single image of possible elf body art, combining three different sketches onto one image. For one of these, I digitally erased a crappy design from an elf girl's leg and replaced it with a different design that had been drawn separately. I also fixed up one male elf image and some sketches of Ningai's hair pulled up into a ponytail.

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012
More visual reference prep work. I cropped and added notes for two more elf women designs. I also prepared images of gojinn's new cape / shoulder garment, Luria's hairstyle, and Hanta's chest hair. Yes, Hanta's chest hair.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
More photoediting prep work for the visual reference stuff. I fixed up a couple of the images of female elf clothing, the special fruit shown in the issue, and the wooden armband worn by all the elves.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012
For the visual reference pages, I scanned a bunch of my "MotJ: Prey" sketch work. Once these were in digital form, I started cropping the pages and adding text notes in the margins around the sketches. I did this for the elf boy, and quite a few drawings of the monster.

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012
I started creating the artist reference web pages for "Mark of the Jinn: Prey." These pages are to be posted on my "drawthiscomic.com" website, and contain the script and visual references for the story. To my surprise, I had already created five web pages for this book, one for each chapter. Those were the old script, though, and had to be changed to contain the new script.

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
Tonight I drew a sketch of Luria, as I am trying to finalize her attire. In this sketch, I've drawn long, flowy pants on her. I think I want the elves to show much more skin, so these pants aren't working for me. The top looks great though, which has a single sleeve, and a shoulder strap on the opposite side. I really like the way that looks, but I think it will be better paired with a long elf-like skirt that shows lots of leg and hip on the sides.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2012
Today was a very busy day, and I just had time to squeeze in a sketch. I drew Ningai, and tried to focus on the cloth wrapping I've added to his character design. It didn't turn out that great. I think I drew it too realistically, when in my mind I see it as something bulky around his wrist and forearm.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2012
I proof read the entire script, and I'm quite happy with it. I did more copy editing along the way, mostly in chapters three, four, and five. After that, I worte some notes about all the visual reference I'll have to prepare for the artists on this project. There's a lot more of that for this project, because the elf village has so many specific visual design elements that are new to the series.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012
SIXTY TWO months now, I've been doing something for my comics everyday. Today is also my birthday, and I was quite busy with my family today. At the end of the day, I decided to draw some sketches of Gojinn, wearing a hood. Some of the human characters will wear hoods in an attempt to hide from prying eyes in future story arcs. I drew three sketches of Gojinn in this outfit, which is basically a hooded version of the parka / shoulder garment he gets in "MotJ: Prey." One of these sketches turned out pretty good, but the others weren't much to look at.

AUGUST 31, 2012
I saw a picture of an elf with a decorative woven headband. The headband was decorated with some large flowers that were attached near the back of the elf girl's head. I really liked the design, and I'm not sure why I haven't drawn anything like these for the elves in the next "Mark of the Jinn" story. I've seen this sort of thing plenty of times, and I even drew organic arm jewelry for the elves. Just no headbands until now. I drew about four sketches on a sheet, but none of them turned out very well. This is the sort of thing that I can describe to Curtis Rhodes, and he will illustrate it better than I could hope to.

AUGUST 30, 2012
Just some minor work on the "Mark of the Jinn: Prey" script. I did some copy editing, and changed a few words around here and there. I did this for about half of the script. I also changed all the instances of "Panel x" to the appropriate panel numbers, mostly for the last chapter.

AUGUST 29, 2012
At first, I thought I would need to write all new narration for chapter five. Looking at the old script, I deleted all the panel descriptions and just read the lines of narrative left behind. I really liked what was already there. As an experiment, I tried to slip the existing narrative alongside the new panels I've been writing. To my surprise, it worked very well. I like using a comic writing technique where the narrative is telling one story, while the visuals are showing stuff that aren't exactly related to it (see my webcomics "Ichiru's Poem" or "Stoic Memories" for examples). Since this is how the original narrative was written, it really didn't matter that the panel descriptions were new. I still cut out a few lines that I deemed superfluous. I also had to group some lines in pairs, as there wasn't an exact 1 to 1 ratio of lines to panels. Some panels ended up with two lines of narrative, which is fine. I'm really happy with the end result, and even more excited that the creative part of script writing is finished!

AUGUST 28, 2012
The next two pages of chapter five are the last two of the story, and I've finished writing panel descriptions for them. That makes the story come out to twenty seven pages total. Page twenty six starts with a couple of new panels that I hadn't thought of before. The rest of page twenty six shows Gojinn using the wood-shaping tool I researched a few days ago. Twenty seven is much closer to the original, but I've still rewritten the panel descriptions to fit better with all the other new stuff I wrote for this last chapter.

AUGUST 27, 2012
I've written panel descriptions for then next page of chapter five (MotJ: Prey). I'm moving away from what I did with the first script, here. The overall ideas are the same, but the small moments from panel to panel are different. I'm not writing any narration or dialogue for these panels yet.

AUGUST 26, 2012
I think I've finished writing the first page of chapter five (MotJ: Prey). I've added a panel at the beginning that shows Ningai dragging a tree. In the previous script, it seemed like Ningai was just "supervising" work and not actually doing anything himself. This way, we clearly see that Ningai is pitching in and doing his part. I also cut down a scene where a young elf speaks before an older elf chases him away. The moment is still there, but I've edited down to happen quicker since it's not very important.

AUGUST 25, 2012
I was making some changes throughout chapter five, when I thought of a change I wanted to make. In the original, Gojinn was using his super strength to carry or drag some timber. As he is a skilled weaponsmith, dragging timber isn't the right job for him. Instead, he should be shaping the timber into useful lumber. With this realization, I drew a few sketches of Gojinn using a primitive "plane" tool to shape the wood.

AUGUST 24, 2012
Though I've re-written the script from scratch (Mark of the Jinn: Prey), it still ends the same way. So I've decided to use some of what I've written for chapter five from the previous script. There's some of it that I don't like, such as some sarcastic comments from Kira. I'd rather she remain quiet and scary, rather than loud. There are some other things I'll change too, but I'm going to use the existing chapter five script as a backbone. I copied the complete chapter into my new script, and I'm editing it accordingly. It's a bit of a mess right now. I'm breaking down pages / panel groupings, and deleting some of the stuff I don't like. This may be a bad idea, as it might be easier to just rewrite this chapter instead :)

AUGUST 23, 2012
I thought I may work on chapter five tonight, but I'm not quite ready for that. Instead, I wrote notes about specific visual points I wanted to hit during the chapter. I already had a clear picture in mind for some of these, but I came up with some new ones as well (like two elf kids pretending to sword fight in the background). I also went through the first four chapters for a little clean up. For instance, I always type panel descriptions starting with "Panel x," since I don't always know what the panel number will be. I move panels around, regroup pages, combine or eliminate panels. For that reason, it could get really confusing to number a panel and then end up missing a number or listing two panels with the same number on one page. Now that the first four chapters are good to go, I went through and changed all the "x" placeholders to their appropriate number.

AUGUST 22, 2012
Looking back over what I've done so far, I realize that I left chapter three in a mess. There's a lot of writing for it, including narration, dialogue, and panel descriptions. A lot of it is just "loose" though, where dialogue isn't attached to a particular panel or vice versa. I took time tonight to clean all that up. Now chapter three is a cohesive chapter. I've rearranged some of my page breaks too, which groups the panels a little differently. There's a LOT going on in this chapter, and it ended up being eight pages. This is much longer than I shoot for in these MotJ chapters, but the content of this one dictated the length. There's no reason to break this one into a couple of four page chapters, as it really is one long scene (even though the location moves a bit during it). I only cut out or combined panels in a couple of places, mostly to keep certain pages from getting too cluttered. All in all, this is an important chapter that sets up the climax of the story. It's going to end up being a lot more work for one artist than the other chapters I'm afraid.

AUGUST 21, 2012
I finished the rest of writing chapter four, which mostly consisted of adding narration or dialogue to the panel descriptions. This chapter is short, and really gets to the point in a hurry! I like the fast pace, though, and I'm really happy with the content here.

AUGUST 20, 2012
I've written an ending for chapter four (Mark of the Jinn: Prey). I wrote panel descriptions mostly, so there's still more work to be done on the chapter. It looks like it will be five pages, which is pretty short for an action-based chapter.

AUGUST 19, 2012
I finished writing page three, and wrote all the panel descriptions for page four. I wrote some narration for page four also, but I haven't finished matching up the words with the panels yet. I wrote a single panel description for the first panel on page five. It's pretty much the final action panel of the story. Everything else is cooldown (or "falling action & resolution" if you prefer).

AUGUST 18, 2012
I added some narration to chapter four, page two. I also wrote narration and panel descriptions for most of page three.

AUGUST 17, 2012
I'm not sure if I'll take up drawing duties on "Mark of the Jinn: Prey," but I'd like to be prepared just in case. To that end, I filled a page with sketches of the dino-like monster from the story. I drew some full body sketches, and some head shots. I also drew a small group of these creatures, though there is only one featured in the story. Elsewhere in the fictional world, they may exist in family groups.

AUGUST 16, 2012
Just enough work tonight to get by. I wrote panel descriptions for about five panels, which will likely make up page two of chapter four. I'm following my recent thoughts of "jump right into the action" rather than building it up with running & chasing.

AUGUST 15, 2012
Continuing with chapter four, I only did a little writing tonight. I described the action elements for the most part, and elected to jump right into those parts rather than build with more chasing. It seems like every "Mark of the Jinn" story has so much chasing and running in it. Enough already! So there's running and chasing here, but there are other things happening that are really the focus. Also, I described a scene in which we see Kira in the woods. She's standing still in a small clearing, waiting for her chance to unleash some violence. She's standing like a ninja or samurai, with her head tilted down slightly. The scene was so awesome in my head, that I couldn't stop smiling as I was writing it :)

AUGUST 14, 2012
I started writing chapter four this afternoon. I started with some notes about what I want from this chapter, then moved on to the opening narration. There's a scene where Ningai wraps a cloth around his hand, which I was sure to get to by the end of the first page.

AUGUST 13, 2012
I did a little more work on chapter three. At this point, it's mostly tweaking the narration and dialogue to fit the characters and tone of the story. I've also added some more panel descriptions. This chapter's looking pretty much done now. Next up is the action chapter!

AUGUST 12, 2012
I've done a little more refining & revising tonight. I've grouped some lines of dialogue into single panels, and written panel descriptions, too.

AUGUST 11, 2012
I wrote a scene for chapter three that involves Ningai and Kira. It was fun to write this part, since Kira is so angry and rude. This also brings the third chapter to a close. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but my framework is pretty much in place.

AUGUST 10, 2012
Mostly rewrites and some editing on what I've got so far on chapter three (MotJ: Prey). I worked a bit more on the interaction between Ningai and Luria.

AUGUST 9, 2012
On a roll tonight, I wrote about eighteen or nineteen panels worth of dialogue. That will likely equal out to three page of script. I can't tell for sure yet how many panels, because I only focused on the back and forth dialogue here. I'll have to group these bits of dialogue later. Normally, two (maybe three) lines will fit comfortably within each panel. More than that, and you'll end up with word balloons that cover all the art in a panel. This section is turning out quite well, but still needs to be fleshed out a bit more. I'm really liking it so far!

AUGUST 8, 2012
I wrote a little more than a page of script for chapter three. I didn't bother to add any narration yet, but I will later. For now, I focused on the visuals I wanted to show during the elf festival.

AUGUST 7, 2012
I finished segmenting the rest of chapter two's panels into three pages (Mark of the Jinn: Prey). I moved the shower scene to the first page of chapter three, then wrote a paragraph describing what else I want out of chapter three. Everything is coming together nicely now, after such a struggle with the first two chapters. At first I had all the points I wanted to get into the story, but I wasn't sure what order they would fit in the story. It's a bit like a puzzle that way. I had all these pieces, more than enough to complete the puzzle. After fitting together a framework of edge pieces, it's easier to see which pieces will complete the puzzle and which ones to discard (for now).

AUGUST 6, 2012
I drew a couple of sketches of a beast for the "Mark of the Jinn" world. It's a large creature, domesticated for transport. The beast has a couple of large horns that run parallel to its jaw on each side. I like it, but I'm not sure when or where it will fit into a story.

AUGUST 5, 2012
I separated and arranged the panels for the first three pages of chapter two. Not much changed today, though I did combine a couple of panels on page three. This condensed page three down a bit, which ends the scene nicely before the transition on the next page.

AUGUST 4, 2012
After thinking about the festival that takes place in the elf village (Mark of the Jinn: Prey), I realized that I wanted the elves to have an elegant sort of glass to drink from. Originally, I thought they would drink from small wooden bowls. That's fine for everyday use, but not formal enough for the festival. I drew a few sketches of possible organic vessels. The one I like best is similar to that of a carnivorous pitcher plant. It look similar to a champagne flute, which has a much more formal aesthetic than a simple bowl.

AUGUST 3, 2012
I just did a little script work on "Mark of the Jinn: Prey." Based on the amount of panels, it looks like chapter two will end up being six pages long. I added narration to the last three pages of the chapter. These narrative captions mainly deal with the conflict between Ningai's good feelings about his new home versus the lingering questions about his "mark of the jinn" and why it appeared.

AUGUST 2, 2012
I didn't get to start working on comics until about 11:30pm tonight. At first, I thought I should just draw a sketch instead of trying to write while feeling sleepy. Once I sat down in front of the computer, though, I wrote a really nice interaction between Ningai and the elf boy. It's just the right tone for these characters, and I was able to fit it into chapter two without forcing it. I also fleshed out a little more of what we see near the end of chapter two.

AUGUST 1, 2012
MONTH SIXTY ONE now. Tonight, I did some more work on chapter two. I've added about a page worth of panel descriptions, which would likely all be on the fourth page of that chapter. This is a very complicated chapter for me to write. The first three pages have a lot of narration and then dialogue, while the characters stay in one spot. On the fourth page, most of the characters move to another area of the elf village, and we get a small glimpse at the monster below. I also did some research on old fashioned machines used to make fabrics. In particular, there is something called a "spinning jenny" which I used as a basis for a simple machine the elves use to collect silk-like strands used to make their banners and clothing.

JULY 31, 2012
In real life, my wife and I are expecting a child. We went today for the sonogram, and learned that we are having a baby boy! What little time I spent on comics today was spent writing notes about what I want out of the rest of chapter two (after the stuff I wrote yesterday). I'm going to have the heroes visit the fabric & loom area of the elf village, as Curtis has put a lot of research and thought into the way the elves create their silky fabrics. It's really interesting visually, and I've never seen that kind of thing in a comic before. I think I'll use the technique of showing all this fabric and loom stuff for the visuals, while the narration describes thoughts or stories completely unrelated to the visuals. It's the sort of technique I used in the webcomic "Stoic Memories," and I like it much better than a bunch of "talking head" panels for narration or long dialogues.

JULY 30, 2012
I worked for an hour and a half on chapter two of "Mark of the Jinn: Prey." Most of the work today was figuring out what to include, and what to leave out. The new character, Luria, has SO much information to share with the heroes. The trouble here is deciding what is relevant right now, and what can wait for a future story arc. For instance, Luria explains why humans hide their ears out in the rest of the world. That's important stuff to our human heroes, but it's not the right time to share that info. Also, I've cut out all the instances where Luria says the name of a human that visited the elf village long ago. I remember putting a lot of time and thought into that character's name, but it's better left unsaid this time. If someone starts reading the Mark of the Jinn series by jumping into this volume, there will be enough characters names to learn without adding the name of a character that doesn't even make an appearance. After whittling all this info down, I ended up with about 18 panels worth of narration and dialogue. That works out to about three pages of script. The most exciting bit here is where Luria explains the concept of "magic" :)

JULY 29, 2012
I've done some rewrites on chapter two today, but I'm still not sure I've got everything in place. I found a file where I've already written a script for this story, but I've got mixed feelings about it. I prefer the completely new version of chapter one, but the old version contained a nice scene of Luria explaining things about the world. I'd also like to work in an interaction between Ningai and the elf boy in chapter two. I'm going to have to work out a way to get to all this stuff in one chapter.

JULY 28, 2012
I wrote a couple pages of chapter two tonight (MotJ:Prey). After all the thought and attention that Curtis and I put into the waterfall shower facilities at the elf village, I feel like it would be an interesting element to include in the story. After showing the shower area on the first page, Ningai catches up to Gojinn (who hasn't made an appearance yet in this story).

JULY 27, 2012
I let it get to late to work on the script tonight. Instead, I hammered out a quick sketch of Gojinn in his elf-created shoulder garment and pants. I experimented with my style a bit here, going for something a bit rougher than usual.

JULY 26, 2012
The first draft of chapter one (MotJ:Prey) is now complete. On page four, I've added a short scene in which the young elf boy balances precariously on a railing. Since the entire village is up in the treetops, this is something he probably shouldn't be doing. Nothing big happens here, but this scene will work well with something that happens much later in the story. At first, I felt like I should work all four heroes into this opening scene, but that's not really necessary. Ningai is the narrator this time, so really this first chapter is all about him and his thoughts. There will be time to introduce the two other main heroes (Gojinn & Hanta) in the next chapter.

JULY 25, 2012
I was able to fit the "Kira snubs Ningai" scene onto to page three of "MotJ: Prey." It works better on page three. Page two was the first page that the narrative really focuses on the elf people. Showing Kira would make new readers think she was an elf (even though her ears aren't pointy). Here, Ningai makes a reference to the heroes' original home, so it works much better that Kira makes an appearance during these captions.

JULY 24, 2012
Instead of working on the story and script today, I sketched a scene from "Mark of the Jinn: Prey." The sketch shows Ningai at the end of a walkway, leaning his forearms on the railing. The sketch didn't turn out well, but it will serve as visual reference for the artist illustrating chapter one.

JULY 23, 2012
I moved on to the second page of panel descriptions, matching them with the dialogue from a few days ago. Like everything on this first chapter, I struggled a bit with it. I really wanted to show Kira in on this page, as she gives an ugly look toward Ningai before walking away. It just didn't work on this page. I plan to use that somewhere else in chapter one, but it just didn't fit the narrative here. On this page, I focused on the elf people, their village, and the walkways. It's mostly visual exposition so the reader will understand the environment without having to be shown a big complicated view of the village in each chapter.

JULY 22, 2012
I've decided to work out some of the panel descriptions now, rather than wait until all chapter narration/dialogue is finished. The reason is that I want a clear picture in my head of what I've shown of the elf village and monster. To do that, I need to know what chapter one will look like. I've scripted out the first page of panel descriptions, matching them to the narration I wrote a few days ago for page one.

JULY 21, 2012
The narration here is proving difficult to write. I'm still happy with what's coming forth so far, but it's been a struggle to get the words how I want them. There is so much Ningai could say about their arrival on this island, the monster that nearly ate them, and he could speak volumes about the elf culture he's observed so far. The trick is the narrow down his narration to only the necessary parts for story exposition. I think I've finished the narration for this first chapter now. The monster gets mentioned in two separate places here, which I like. Throughout the story, the monster is a constant factor that looms in the background. Mentioning the monster in two different parts of the chapter one narration serves the same purpose: even when other things are being discussed, the monster still pops up in that monologue.

JULY 20, 2012
I wrote a little more narration for the first chapter of "Mark of the Jinn: Prey." It's coming along slowly compared to the other story arcs I've written for MotJ. Still, I like what I've done so far. Even as I flesh out this chapter, I'm making changes. A couple days ago, I thought I would show Ningai interacting with an elf boy. The little elf is fascinate by the heroes, particularly Ningai. This elf boy becomes important later in the story, but I decided not to rush this interaction. Instead, the elf boy will be around in the backgrounds. Instead of interacting with Ningai here, the elf boy will just follow him around for now.

JULY 19, 2012
Okay, I've solved my problem with this first chapter... by destroying it :) I realize that no matter what happens in this first chapter, the beginning is just too close to the beginning of the previous story. My solution? Skip the beginning. One of my favorite things about "Mark of the Jinn" is how I just skip some of the boring bits and jump to the next interesting scene. Surprisingly, there isn't much lost by doing that. The reader may feel like "whoa, we've jump ahead quite a bit," but I think that this is a good thing. Instead of boring the reader with too many transitional scenes, we just skip them. If the characters are walking in the woods in one scene, then in a boat on the water in the next scene... you should be able to figure out that they got in a boat. So I'm skipping the first chapter, and going to where Ningai is already in the elf village, looking out at the wreckage of their boat. He describes what happened through narration, so I can still get some of this expositional information to the reader. I'm really glad to be skipping the "elf rescue" in chapter one, because I'm not sure how an artist would have to deal with it in comic form (vines/ropes thrown to the heroes, then snatched up into the trees). Realistically, this could be accomplished through the use of counter weights, which would quickly pull the heroes up to safety (one hero at a time). Still, I was afraid this would just look goofy or slapstick. By just describing it through narration, I think it won't come across that way. The only drag about losing this chapter is the reveal shot of the monster. I had a really "Jurassic Park-esque" reveal shot planned, as the heroes discover the monster in the forest. What we'll get instead may be better though, as I'll show bits and pieces of the monster before revealing it at the end of chapter one. I've written the narration for page one tonight.

JULY 18, 2012
I've started writing the actual story for "Mark of the Jinn: Prey." It's from Ningai's narration, which is different from either of the first two story arcs. I've written more notes about what kind of things are on Ningai's mind, so he can offer us some insight into his character through his narration. One thing that's bothering me is that the first scene of the story has the heroes arriving on a new island, just as they did in the last story. It's hard to start this story differently, because these characters basically are doing the same thing as the last story. Their experience on this island will be completely different from the last one, but I don't like how similar these are starting off. I've also struggled with the opening lines here for whatever reason.

JULY 17, 2012
I filled a page with notes today about what I want out of each chapter. These are mainly plot points, but there is some character development listed as well. That's the tricky part out of this kind of story. Most people agree that character-driven stories are much deeper than plot-driven stories. That is, we focus on the characters and what they think or feel rather than just focus on a series of events that happen to the characters. For "Mark of the Jinn," I really like to give a big helping of both if I can. The stories very much center around our group of heroes, but there are always extraneous events that affect their choices and decisions. Most of the notes tonight are things that I've written before, along with some of the newer tidbits that I've thought of lately. This is another difficult part of writing this kind of story, because I know exactly where I want the story to end up. The hard part is getting the characters to arrive at that ending without it feeling forced or out-of-character for any of our heroes.

JULY 16, 2012
I just realized that we should be starting the actual pages of "Mark of the Jinn: Prey" soon, and I can't remember if I've actually written the script for it or not. I know I've worked out most of the story before. I could always look back through these journal entries, but there's no need for that. Since I've thought of new story points lately, any previous version of my story would be useless. Well, that's a bit harsh. Writing the story a few times is actually quite helpful in streamlining what I want out of the story arc. But mostly it helps me solidify some of the concepts floating around loose in my head. Today, I drew some sketches of elf women to help get me back in the proper mindset. Also, I spent some time looking at leg tattoo designs on the web, because I think these tree-dwelling elves would decorate themselves with henna-style tattoos made from natural dyes. I think I've captured the right style of body art for these elves, as it is very thin and flowy. The designs I've drawn a vine-like, but not wrapping around the arm or leg.

JULY 15, 2012
I've scanned the art for the six page "Mortem Brand vs Tengu" story. I also scanned the failed page six that turned into a giant sketch sheet. I scan the images as color, then convert them to black and white. As I've mentioned before, I seem to get better quality scans this way (as opposed to scanning it as black & white from the start). I changed each page from a "jpg" file to a "tif" format, which will allow multiple layers in my photoediting program. I also did just the very smallest of digital work, smudging out all the dates I had written in each panel. Whenever I finish drawing a panel, I write the date along the edge. It's easy enough to remove it digitally, and it remains on the physical art sheets in case I ever wondered what year or day they were from.

JULY 14, 2012
I was going to draw a pin-up style shot of Mortem Brand and the younger Tengu (from a few days ago). I only drew Mortem Brand, and left a very hollow-looking sketch where the Tengu should be. It just got too late, and I couldn't stay awake long enough to draw more than one character.

JULY 13, 2012
I drew a sketch of Mortem Brand without his tendril cape. He certainly doesn't look the same without it. I love drawin the snake-like tendrils creeping up over his back, but this capeless look is good for him, too.

JULY 12, 2012
The pencilwork for "Mortem Brand vs Tengu" is done. I drew the final panel, which is a far shot of the pavillion (similar to the first panel on page one). This sort of "bookends" the beginning and end of the story. I struggled to draw this last panel, but it turned out okay. Overall, this is the best looking page of the story.

JULY 11, 2012
Panel 2 on page six is a wide shot, showing Mortem Brand holding his mask in his hand. Somewhere behind him, the fallen Tengu's mask lay near a column.

JULY 10, 2012
I finished that first panel on page six (Mortem Brand vs Tengu). The main things I added tonight were the Tengu's left shoulder and arm, as well as a spray of blood coming from the massive sword wound. The sword is cutting from his collarbone down to mid-chest, and I wanted to get the blood right here. I did my best to show the blood spray in perspective, as it bursts out in every direction radially. I sometimes like to use a really gritty speckled spray, but here I'm using big glob-like drops (like thick gel dripping away). I also added shading to everything tonight, except the blood. I want the blood to just be an outline here, because I'll likely separate it onto its own layer during the digital process. That way, I can color it in, while making it translucent. I was a bit worried that this panel wouldn't hit the mark, but I'm quite pleased with it :)

JULY 9, 2012
I had a lot going on tonight, and knew I wouldn't be able to finish off that panel from yesterday. Instead, I drew a new version of a Tengu. This one has a more youthful appearance than the one from the story I'm drawing. This new Tengu has a full head of hair pulled back in a low ponytail. He also wears clothing similar to that of feudal Japan (as opposed to being nearly buck naked like the Tengu from my current story). This new one carries a "Shakujo" (monk's staff), as the Tengu concept is sometimes depicted as carrying it. While some Tengu lore shows them as troublemakers or tricksters, other stories show that Tengus are protectors. I think I'd like to show this opposing view in a separate story, and likely involve Mortem Brand again.

JULY 8, 2012
I started drawing the real page six today. I stuck very close to the layout sketch from yesterday, using a slightly overhead angle. It's turning out really well. It's a big panel, so I wasn't quite able to finish it. The Tengu takes up most of this large panel, with the sword sticking out of his chest. we can barely see Mortem Brand's angry face over the Tengu's shoulder. MB's cloth ponytail-tie blows dramatically as it does in nearly every panel of this story.

JULY 7, 2012
I attempted to start page six of "Mortem Brand vs. Tengu," but it just wasn't working out. This is the climactic scene where MB disposes of his foe. At first, I was going to do a splash page (one panel covering the whole page), but that's how I ended another webcomic of mine, "Crusade Dusk." Also, I've thought that I'd like to show the enemy getting "Voltron'd." That is, being cut in half from top to bottom as seen in the end of pretty much every episode of the "Voltron" cartoon (which I absolutely loved throughout my childhood). The panel I drew, though, just wasn't... cutting it. I drew a completely boring panel showing a medium shot of this action from an uninteresting camera angle. I used the remaining part of the page to work out a couple of alternate layouts for the panel instead. The one I liked is a slightly overhead shot, and the sword hasn't gone completely through the Tengu. Instead, the sword is about halfway through the Tengu, and juts out in a way that extends towards the reader slightly.

JULY 6, 2012
Another wide panel, but not as large as the one from yesterday. Here, Mortem Brand holds his sword, as is a bit hunched over. We should get the impression that he's ready to strike. Since this panel is the last on page five, I'm starting to realize that I need to wrap things up, or this action piece could go on and on. I'd much rather keep webcomics between 4 and 6 pages, usually. I think I can finish things off on the next page. Plus, I'm getting a visual in my head for what's going to happen to the Tengu :)

JULY 5, 2012
I've drawn a somewhat large, wide panel that shows the Tengu pensively stroking his beard as he looks down. Behind him, Mortem Brand stands with his hand still on his teleporting belt buckle (that sounds silly, doesn't it?). MB gives a very series look, while the cloth in his hair blows almost horizontally.

JULY 4, 2012
Happy Independence Day! I drew two more small panels, which are in line with the one from yesterday. In the middle panel here, we have an extreme close up of Mortem Brand's belt buckle, and his gloved fingertips touching it. After that, is another small panel almost identical to the one from yesterday, but with Mortem Brand not in it. I've added his shadow, as if he still lays in the panel. The candles are in this panel again, to show where we're looking (and to help the reader understand that Mortem Brand has disappeared).

JULY 3, 2012
I added a small panel to page five today (Mortem Brand vs Tengu). In this panel, we see MB laying on the ground. The shot is somewhat from the Tengu's POV, looking down at MB. There are a couple of candles on the floor nearby, which will serve as a reference point in a later shot.

JULY 2, 2012
I started the fifth page of "Mortem Brand vs. Tengu." It's a wide panel, that shows that the Tengu has pulled off Mortem Brand's cape of tendrils. The Tengu shoves MB to the ground with one hand, and holds the strange cape in his other hand.

JULY 1, 2012
Well, it's been SIXTY MONTHS now, and I've still done something for my comics every single day. That's FIVE YEARS. It adds up to over 1800 days in a row that I've stuck to my goal of doing something every day, and no reason to stop now! I finished the last panel on page four (Mortem Brand vs. Tengu). I added the remaining line work for Mortem Brand's body, the loose cape-tendrils on one side, and the Tengu's left arm. I also did the blended pencil shading on everything here. The work on shading the Tengu's back didn't turn out nearly as well as it did in the first panel on this page. Oh well, he's not really the focus of this panel.

This website as well as all characters and comics listed therein, copyright 2012 Jay W. Davis / One Shot Productions.